So Rick got things going yesterday with his post on LLL.coms. I was particularly interested because I was having a discussion last week with a longtime domainer friend. He does not really care for 3L.coms and felt they were overhyped.
Personally I have always liked 3L.coms and Xef.com was one of my first purchases many years ago. 3Character.com was founded 13 years ago long before most blogs and industry sites in the space.
Rick included the following in his post:
3 letter domains are selling for around $25k-37k. Way too cheap!! 1/10 of what the prices should be and probably will be in the not too distant future. LLL.com domains are worth a MINIMUM $100k! Any less is weak. Selling too cheap. A unique asset to fill a unique need of something very specific and you pull your pants down??!! WEAK!
Now it may not apply to qxz or some other variables that have few exact matches, but it does apply to a large swath of LLL.com domains. Like anything else, you need to do your homework. You need to do your research.
The difference between a $35k LLL.com domain and a $350k LLL.com domain is the seller! There are only a few variables. The sellers price and the buyers price. The sellers circumstance and the size of the buyers wallet. Then it’s a game of chicken and a test of wills.
One reader Dave L. came back with:
Rick, are you stocking up on these great deals of LLL’s for $25k-$37k? if you choose not to buy a certain LLL.com for $25k, it is the same decision as the domainer who sells it for $25k. You are both choosing to have $25k cash instead of that domain.
On Namepros one member called Rick a slumlord:
I think calling Rick a slumlord is way off base, I tend to think a lot of sentiment in domaining is based on the classic Have’s vs Have Nots. The added line about more companies moving away from .com sounds cute, but there is no evidence of that happening.
What would you expect from a new g fanboi from namepros. Rick is a legend and rich and this person is nobody.
When you read the ramblings of so many new investors you wonder why they are in domaining? well they aren’t really, they are pretenders. If Rick is a slumlord, then this person must be a rat in one of his apartments. Jealousy is all it ever is, no one owning a three letter new gtld wouldn’t trade it for a three letter .com.
i agree with Rick. It is cheap, and has always been cheap. The problem is this take time, and most domainers don’t have time. they want to get rich quickly. they don’t plan for the long run.
LLL.com is a scarce asset. unless there is a revolution on the naming and addressing scheme on the Internet, it’s inevitable the increase in prices in the long run.
You don’t need to be a genius to see how this is evident. Think about inflation. Think about on the at least 2 billion people that are not yet on the internet. Think about how scarcity plays out on other assets, like art, collectibles, etc.
Like in many other businesses we are own worst enemy, complicating things that should’t be. LLL.com is probably one of the easiest segments to establish value and plan for the future.
We haven’t even hit 50% of the world’s population having Internet access. Only about 3 billion can access the Internet, leaving a good 4+ billion to go.
And most of those 4+ billion do not speak English and likely never will. Many are illiterate even in their own mother tongue. Lots of uneducated citizens in India and China where those 4+ billion are likely to come from — IF their governments (see China) even allow them access to the Internet in its fullest form.
There are so many unsuccessful people in the biz they only know how to shout out at those who are successful.
Different sellers can be selling from vastly different selling positions. One domainer might have a low cost basis on his domains and no real short-term cash needs so can price high and wait for those buyers to come along and pay his asking price. Another domain seller might have more short-term cash needs and be willing to take a lower price. Slumlords or rats? Not sure why folks feel the need to troll, this is a decision that every business faces based on their specific situation.
how was he trolling? Looked to me he was calling someone a rat who was calling the greatest domain investor of all time a slumlord. Either you understand the business or you don’t. Most don’t.
Mutual trolling I would say but who cares, my main point was just because you take a different pricing approach to Rick, it doesn’t mean you don’t understand the business. Perhaps the seller needs or wants cash now. Could it be you don’t understand that particular seller’s situation? Or are you just convinced Rick is infallible?
There was no trolling, you should have better reading comprehension. I am convinced he is smarter than you and the people on namepros.
Feels like this guy is now trolling you. Ricks right and the trolls and fans of trolls are wrong. It’s that simple.
Rick is indeed a smart guy, few would question that. But if Domain could improve his reading comprehension he’d realize that I was stating there can be more than one valid approach. Not sure that’s a troll-worthy comment.
Clearly peeps out there don’t even know the definition of slumlord. Maybe Rick owns some old houses in less than desirable neighborhoods and rents them out to lower rent tenants. Not sure what that has to do with holding onto premium, undeveloped domains as digital assets.
Kind of like people don’t even know the definition of squatter, or even cybersquatter in its formal legal sense. A squatter is someone who occupies someone else’s property illegally. Most domain names are owned by bona fide owners not people occupying someone else’s property. People only call them squatters because those people are jealous of them — haves versus have nots. With domain names, only if a pre-existing trademark exists — and only if done in bad faith — can a cybersquatter be said to be occupying someone else’s property.
i’ve been loading up on chinese LLLL lately. They are going for less than $450 on godaddy auctions for many of them. Just a heads up.
You couldn’t give those away in early 2015, most sold for below $20 each, just a heads up.
Bottom line: Rick’s business acumen is in the top 1%
Great negotiator
Leadership, as demonstrated at former conferences
Super marketing and sales
And he knows how to structure contacts (see the six figure windfall he got this week after TEEM (the company) was acquired)
But there will always be “critics”. I’ve heard people criticize Spielberg as a director, Warren Buffet as an investor, Jeff Bezos as a CEO — do they care ? Not one idiota
To avoid criticism:
Say nothing.
Do nothing.
Be nothing.
Rick well-earned his mantel of Domain King.
Rick Schwartz is to be respected and listened to.
The use of the term “Slumlord” is off base and that personal attack, abhorrent.
Asking for top dollar for the names Rick owns is a process that is misunderstood by most in the domain game.
Rick correctly characterizes 3L.com name holders selling for under $100K as weak.
It is painfully evident that a large percentage of “domainers” are weak when it comes to selling their names. A practice that has hurt the industry as a whole.
I take exception to the personal attack on Rick.
And I especially take exception to taking Rick to task for demanding his assessed value of the names he owns, for sale.
IMHO, if more domainers had more backbone when selling, the domain industry would be stronger.
Who are these idiots?
Whomever this guy is he’s drinking that haterade.
“The difference between a $35k LLL.com domain and a $350k LLL.com domain is the seller!”
frameable.
1) EVERYBODY KNOWS THE VALUE OF EACH NAME AFTER 30 YEARS IN THE GAME.
2) IF YOU NEED CASH, SELL IT FOR WHATEVER PRICE YOU CAN GET.
3) IF YOU CAN HOLD ON TO IT, HOLD ON TO IT. DOMAINS ARE THE BEST INVESTMENT FOR NEXT 100 YEARS.
4) WE (3 BROTHERS) OWN THE BEST .PK (PAKISTAN) NAMES FOR 18 YEARS LIKE SHOP, GIFT, FOOD, TRADE.
5) WE SELL FEW EACH YEAR TO RAISE CASH. THE REST ARE SITTING.
6) I GOT MANY OFFERS FOR SHOP.COM.PK FOR $100,000 …… I WANT TO SELL IT FOR $1 MILLION OR START MY OWN INTERNET COMPANY. THAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE.
only note I have regarding Rick’s affirmation is that if he thinks LLL.com will/are valued at $100k and people are selling them way to cheap at $20/30k then he should have bought all 200 LLL.com 4.cn has dumped at a lost in August.
I think until there is more oversight in the domain industry domain values will suffer ,I was close to pulling the trigger on a 23k lll.com a couple months ago more or less ,than I heard of Andrew rosters experience and loss of If I recall about 40k ,when he ended up buying a stolen domain.Also the default of alp domains last year ,when owners were left hanging with no access to their accounts actually had domains drop,in spite of contacting Verisign and iccann not one of these companies gav3 two -hits . After the rest of The domain I had left we’re finally transferred to moniker ,I let some drop because moniker was raping you on redemption fees ,when this all should have been free,this industry is going out the way it came in ,like the Wild West. The big shots are making a killing on drops ,but don’t want to refund if names are stolen,that’s why I’m stickin* to quality 2 workers instead of taking a 30 k hit .